PHILIPPINE NEWS SERVICE — THE latest survey of the Pulse Asia has Team Unity gaining more Senate seats, 6-4, with two independent candidates making it to the “Magic 12.”
Covering the period from April 3 to 5, the survey said that if the May elections were held today, 15 senatorial candidates would have a statistical chance of winning.
Eight of the probable winners belong to the “Genuine Opposition,” five come from “Team Unity,” and two, independent candidates.
The Pulse Asia survey shows Loren Legarda still leading the race with an overall voter preference of 60.8 percent and a statistical ranking of solo first place.
In distant second place is Senate President Manuel Villar, (48.9 percent) who currently enjoys a statistical ranking of second to fourth places. Sharing the second to the sixth spots are Francis Escudero ( 45.3 percent) of GO and Francis Pangilinan (44.6 percent), independent.
Panfilo Lacson (43.1 percent) and Ralph Recto (41.5 percent) are in the third to the sixth places.
Edgardo Angara’s voters’ preference of 35.5 percent put him anywhere from seventh to 11th places while two incumbent members of the House of Representatives, Benigno Aquino III (33.5 percent) and Alan Peter Cayetano (32.5 percent) share the seventh to the 13th slots.
Rounding out the list of probable winners are Joker Arroyo (31.6 percent) and Vicente Sotto III (31.5 percent) in seventh to 15th places, Gregorio Honasan (30.5 percent).
Three opposition candidates and three from Team Unity are between the eighth to 15th and 14th to19th ranks, lead by Genuine Opposition bet Sonia Roco (30.5 percent) in eighth to 15th place; Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri (27.9 percent) and lawyer Aquilino Pimentel III (27.6 percent) both in the 10th to 8th place; John Osmeña (25.8 percent) in 14th to 18th place; former presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor (25.1 percent) in 14th to 19th place; and actor Cesar Montano (24 percent), in 14th to 19th place.
The survey also showed that Filipino voters, on the average, write eight to nine candidates of their preference on the ballot. On the other hand, 5.9 percent of the respondents refused to identify their senatorial bets at this time or do not express support for any of the 37 candidates for senator.
Pulse Asia said that the nationwide survey is based on a “multi-stage probability sample of 1,800 representative adults 18 years old and above, and has a +/- 2 percent error margin at the 95 percent confidence level.”